If the shoe fits

I've been called a lot of nasty things in my eons of reporting. Probably a good number of them deserved. The worst have come from editors, so consider the source.

But I don't usually apply the worst names to myself.

On past assignments overseas, I would identify myself as a reporter for Knight Ridder Newspapers, then have to explain how it was a huge outfit nobody recognized, but that fed stories to tons of readers.

But Knight Ridder is no more. Long live McClatchy, another huge company with a huge audience that's not much well known by the corporate name.

Here we remain Knight Ridder. McClatchy (actually the "clatchy" part) translates to devious or, as one Iraqi told me, "weasel." Accurate, perhaps, but inconvenient.